Zero Faith

On February 20th, 2016, right in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, 16-year-old Amari Pope stabbed and killed 15-year-old Deon Hopkins. Pope's girlfriend and Hopkins were arguing, which led to Pope going home, grabbing a knife, and stabbing Hopkins.


On September 10th, 2015, right in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, 32-year-old Zachary Pinnick was found dead after being found suffering from gunshot wounds. He was on his way to see his sister at the time of the shooting. The killer has not been found


On May 3rd, 2013, right in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, 23-year-old Mibsam Wiggins and 22-year-old Tremayne Jackson were both shot and killed as they were waiting in a parked car in a Walgreens parking lot. The killer has not been found.


Four lives gone for no good reason. This happens often in these neighborhoods. Dorchester. Roxbury. Mattapan. Lives gone. Usually young lives. People have been calling for peace since forever, trying to put an end to the perpetual cycle of violence. You'll see walks, or protests, or prayer services. You'll see programs were you can turn in guns, consequence-free. People just want the violence to end.


It won't end. Ever.


I have no faith in the inner city getting it together. I have no faith that these walks or protests or anything else will ever change things. We must do better, but no one wants to actually do better. This vicious street lifestyle will continue until the earth is no more. And that's pretty scary.


Of the four lives I mentioned, I knew two of them. And one of those two I used to live with for a short time. It saddens me that they are gone. It saddens me further in the way they passed. Kids are getting into this lifestyle at younger and younger ages. I would love to say "it'll get better", but I'd be lying my ass off. It's going to get worse, or at the absolute best, it'll stay exactly the same. I hate to be this pessimistic about this, but I have zero faith, and nothing has given me a reason for optimism.


And even worse, a lot of the killings (either rightfully or not) will be linked to black people. Now I know that there's a chance that there were other races involved in the murders in the inner city, but I'd bet money that some of them were black. And as I've mentioned in the past, these killers would be all about Black Lives Matter and then go end a black life. Only blacks are allowed to kill blacks, they'd say (most likely). We need to do better, but doing better is hard, they'd also probably say.


Zero faith.
And why should I have faith? Just because?


Yeah...no.